by Noel | May 25, 2009 | Gardening
Other than the perennial asparagus bed and a bed that was fallow last year but cleaned out for Anneliese’s gardening effort two years ago, I haven’t gardened any of the north beds since 2003. Besides the asparagus, I have a stand of perennial sunchokes and my compost pile, but the north garden is mostly in disrepair and has become infested with burdock, tansy, sumac and grass. I needed more space this year so I cleaned out the double bed that Anneliese...
by Anneliese | May 23, 2009 | Gardening
Do you know what this flower is? I’ll give you a hint: it’s part of an edible plant. Feel free to post your guesses in the comments section. The first person who answers correctly wins major gardening cred and a CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator. No cheating! Comments (17) | Send | | 517 Views Comments (Comment Moderation is enabled. Your comment will not appear until approved.) [Add Comment] Potato? # Posted By Vertie | 5/23/09 3:31 PM Nope. Not potato....
by Noel | May 19, 2009 | Gardening
I found this little red-bellied snake while raking leaves off the beds. They nest in the leaves every year. This one is still a small juvenile. They are not big snakes even when fully grown. I like having snakes in the garden. They are harmless and they eat lots of insects. Snakes and other creatures also give the garden a little bit of a wild side. I think preserving whatever wildness we can in our yards is important. The sterility of the suburbs is well...
by Geoff | May 17, 2009 | Gardening
Last Saturday Raemelle and I had the opportunity to attend a workshop about Medicine Wheel Gardens at the Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change. I want to convert a section of my front yard to an herb garden and the able crew at Alma de Mujer gave us some inspiration. Ana Lara, Alma’s Program Director, led the workshop. Before we went out to the garden itself the participants spent some time sharing information about the different kinds of illness that...
by Noel | May 13, 2009 | CobraHead, Gardening
I’m really beginning to see positive results of covering the beds with leaves in the fall. I’ve been pretty diligent about doing this for the last five years. This picture shows a bed I just cleaned off. It is almost totally weed free, and the few weeds that have sprouted are easily removed. I even got some leaves into several of the north beds, which is way more of a wild area than the south beds. You can see the results of leaf cover on the bed on...
by Noel | May 7, 2009 | Gardening
I spent some time today potting off peppers and other starts. The first picture shows the results of moving the starts from their seed starting cups to individual larger cups. I still have to pot off most of the tomatoes which are getting pretty crowded. Once they get potted off, they will explode in growth and I’ll start hardening them off immediately so I can get them in the ground by the end of May. It was a beautiful day to be working outside and it...
